Picture taking Guru's, how do you take great pics?

[9 deuce gt]

I really want to take great, clear pics, but I seem to get nothing but blurry grainy pictures. What am I doing wrong. Do you guy's retouch in Photoshop? I thought I could get better pics with just the camera? I am using a Canon SD630 camera. Please critique my pics:

 

[Calebp]

Pretty nice, but unless you mess around with the f-stop and shudder speed, you might not get the desired look. Fortunately, if you want to make your photos look better in post, you can retouch it in photoshop by increasing the color saturation, tweaking the hues, opening the curve editor and screwing around with that, or maybe just some contrast adjustment. Also, does your camera have optical zoom? (Where you twist the lens rings to zoom and focus.) If it does, try some extreme/far angles with different focus methods to create a nice depth of field effect.

 

[OutlawDon]

A tripod and steady hands help out a great deal. Take car pics around the time when sun is rising or setting for less glaring shots. Pick locations with less intrusive/complimentary backdrops....you want the car to be the star and main attraction. Try walking away far from the car and optically zoom as much as you can for more stunning shots.

 

[NinoAvila]

Tripod, lenses, photoshop and a good eye for composition.

Triopod:
helps you keep everything crisp (especially as the amount of light lowers).

Lenses:
Give you different looks. Fish-eye, subject is crisp while background is blurred, everything in picture in focus, etc...

Composition:
Try taking a little step-ladder and take some pics from up top. Try getting on your stomach and taking pics at ground level. Tilt the camera or take a picture with enough around your subject to where you can crop it in a "tilted" fasion.

Photoshop:
Image adjustment - Brightness/contrast, selective color, hue/saturation, shadow/highlight...etc

Filter - Unsharp Mask filter

The best way is to just play around. You'd be amazed at how much photoshop can help make a good picture AMAZING.

-N

 

[Talus]

everything he said ^

your pictures are ok but the painted lines on the lot are distracting. in the last picture you should have squatted and taken it from closer, all of that asphalt doesn't help. In the third picture there is some water in the background. you could have taken better advantage of that too.

make sure you check your ISO settings. the second picture looks really over exposed. if you used a faster shutter, or smaller aperture it would have made a big difference.

above all : look at other people's photos and see what you like and what you don't. notice the way the cars are positioned, what's in the background, etc... secondly, keep shooting.

good luck

 

[JADITO]

I've been meaning to start a similar thread , but always forgot to.
Thanks 9 deuce gt for this thread , its gonna come in handy.
In fact , i started playing around with photoshop on a picture i took today.
Calebp, OutlawDon, NinoAvila and TomBoJangles, ur ps tips came in handy.
heres the pic. First one is the original obviously

 

[NetChemica]

In the end, if you really want some crisp pictures, it'll come down to the camera. I adjusted the hell out of pictures, used a tripod, tried to touch it up with photoshop, but in the end, the edges will look like this:

All the experience in the world can't over come a $200 camera.

btw, that picture is completely untouched

 

[GTRyan]

To retouch somethings.

Tripod: timer or remote so you dont shake picture, if tripod has center pole that rises dont use it much cause it will shake when set high
Sidelight: non harsh better overall like an hour before sunset or in the morning (big one, had to repeat)
Meter: left:right or below the sun and ignore the meters under/over exposure showing up, then recompose and shoot, this takes practice
ISO: turn your iso down to 100-400 in those day shot, lower if you have a pro cam, lower the less noise

Comes down to the cam too, if your using just a p&s well dang, dslr then hell yea check out "Understanding Exposure By Bryan Peterson" best book ever for film or digital slr photography exposure.

 

[CobraChris08]

Good thread.

 

[WhiteStallionGT]

Everything has pretty much been covered by everyone. My tip is to take shots during dusk and sunset. The sun can really over expose things that even photoshop can't fix.

I just got a 350D a couple months ago and I'm still learning. Best thing to do is take a bunch of shots, play around with the settings. Trial and error. Good luck.

 

[r6bullet]

I agree with everbody else, if your camera has adjustable ISO you should lower it during the day. That will help with some of the grain, get yourself a big memory card and just take a ton of pics. I have a 350D and I love it, takes some increadable pictures. If you have photoshop even the small things like "Auto Levels" will make a picture look better. Just mess around with it.

Oh and try to find an area where the yellow lines aren't so bright or gone completly. And when shooting in daylight never shoot at the shadow side of the car, if you want pics of that side turn the car around. (you didn't do that but I am just saying"

 

[Vinny96GT]

Great pics deal with the person behind the camera. You have to feel the picture you are getting ready to take. Dont just take one shot in the same position take as many as you can and look through them and pick what you like and dislike about those pics. Also the setting also has to fit.

Here is a pic of my friends C6 Z06 I did:

I used a DSC-W1 Sony Cybershot.

Also try not to take shot foward shots. Angle the pics a little bit, but not to much then the pic wouldn't make sense.

Here is one of my favorite pics of my car:

Also tripods are great.

 

[9 deuce gt]

Thanks for the tips guys. I should have mentioned that these pics weren't taken with great surroundings in mind. I fully understand the importance of background for great pics. What I'm really wanting to know is why are the pics so grainy? I would love to take great clear, crisp pics. I need to try a tripod. But is there any tricks to sun position not covered here? From what you guy's have said, not pointing the camera into the direction of the sun is important. How should I position the car in terms of which direction the sun is glowing? To the side, directly behind, or is it personal preference?

What about the shadows of trees? In some of the pics I shot, I used the trees in the background to sort of sheild the sun. Is this not recommended?

 

[Talus]

Jadito, hope you don't mind:

I took your last photo and made some changes. before:

After:

It was too cluttered with people and lightpoles coming out of the car, so I took them out. I also adjusted the saturation, hue and input/output levels. Now you'll notice that the background is pretty plain so in the future you might want to consider some clean backdrop like a building, water, etc..

 

[JADITO]

Jadito, hope you don't mind:

I took your last photo and made some changes. before:
After:

It was too cluttered with people and lightpoles coming out of the car, so I took them out. I also adjusted the saturation, hue and input/output levels. Now you'll notice that the background is pretty plain so in the future you might want to consider some clean backdrop like a building, water, etc..

your absolutly right about having a clean backdrop , and i usualy keep that in mind , but theres not much i can do at a mustang gathering , its usually packed with cars and people.
thanks for editing the pic , looks magazine worthy now hehe

 

[Todd03Blown]

wow great info..I just bought a new Sony Cyber shot DCS-w50 (6MP) and need to learn to operate it and take some good pictures.

 

[9 deuce gt]

Double post.

 

[c0dy]

I love photography, what a great thread! Yeah, if you have a DSLR camera (manually adjustable focus and zoom on the lens) you're likely to take sharper (not better, but sharper) pictures. That's not to say your camera is hopeless though, first step (as mentioned) make sure your camera is on the lowest ISO possible for the amount of light. If you have a tripod this is easier because as you lower the ISO your shutter has to stay open longer for the same exposure. Also make sure you have your resolution at the highest possible (to allow cropping) and on "fine" or "super fine" or whatever your camera's best is. I've taken some decent pictures with an A75 (although the detail the Rebel XT is able to capture makes it easier to adjust the picture to where you want it, I think learning with the A75 made me really learn how to adjust pictures, since there tend to be more flaws in the image quality). Something someone suggested was taking multiple pictures from the same area - I'll add to this by saying you can also practice "Bracketing". It's where you take 3 or more pictures from the same spot but at different exposure levels. With film it can be beneficial to under expose just a bit because you get a thicker negative, with digital the idea still carrys over. Also, if you get a good range of EV's from the same spot (the camera can't have moved, and if it did it can be a pain in the butt - thanks auto align in photoshop though!) you can put them together in an HDR picture (high dynamic range) and the results range from horrid to amazing! I don't know everything but I love this stuff and if you have any questions I'll try to answer, my aim is oc0dyc

 

[SVTgriff]

Great thread...

I am no expert, and for sure a novice, but I have learned a few things while using my Sony DSC-H1.

My Manager and super at work are big photo buffs with +$3k cams and they give me some tips when I show them pics.

One thing they told me was when you want and find good back drop, you don't want to take the pic with the subject (car) in the center of the pic.

They say put the car in a quadrant of the pic usually with the car facing the direction of the desired effect......

Quadrants are like putting a tic-tac-toe board over your pic (frame) and then aim with the car in one of the quads outside around the center. If you want the car to appear to be entering the pic ("coming") make it where the front is facing the center quad.....the opposite if you want that "going" look.

Also, check your shadows....they will most likley get exhagerated when you look at the finished pic. So, if your light (sun) is behind/above the subject, it will appear dark and less vibrant with color. If other words, if in bright sunlight take the shot with the sun at your back.

Also, try and keep the reflections of other objects in your paint/windows out of the pic as much as possible escpecially if they are not in the frame (trees, asphault, poles, other cars, YOU TAKING THE PIC)

If any one finds this info wrong please feel free to tell me, I will not get upset. Like I said I have learned some on my own and some from my bosses at work. I can always use more tips...

 

[SPICER]

Can someone touch some of these up for me and make them look better please.